Always wanted a Mac? Try this. - M2 Mac Mini

The new M2 Mac Minis are here and with their low pricing, it could be an enticing entrance to the Apple ecosystem for people who have been on the fence. Jake is here to see if the M2 is feature packed or if its small form factor limits what you can do with it.

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

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CHAPTERS
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0:00 It may be small, but it's got power!
0:25 Unboxing
1:13 Ports and design
2:22 Specs
2:59 Sponsor - Secret Labs
3:21 Setup and comparison to Mac Studio
4:31 Testing WiFi 6E, SSD, and M2 speeds plus thermal test
6:37 Speaker impressions versus iPhone
8:12 Teardown
10:53 Pricing and overall thoughts
11:35 Outro

[sirflimflam]

I bought an M1 mac mini almost 2 months before the M2 was announced, and I took it into the apple store expecting them to laugh me out of the buildings because their return window is 14 days. Even the first guy I talked to sympathized with me but told me to expect a no. Apparently there was a sympathetic manager cause he approved the swap. Ended up getting refunded a hundred dollars by the end of the encounter because of the price drop between the M1 and M2. The guy processing the trade went back to the manager like 3 times probably trying to cover his own ass to make sure he was cool with it, and he just kept shrugging "sometimes it ends up like that". Actually a pretty cool experience at an apple store. I'm not really a big apple guy but that encounter was pretty great.

[asnovasdodia]

The International Court of Justice is punishing Jake for breaking Geneva's convention when putting the Apple sticker on the mac. That's how brutal it is.

[zzzzzzz]

Why does everyone from LTT, when unboxing, have to act like they really hate whatever is inside the box?

[onikaze]

they never tout the internal speaker that I have seen. I think it's really just there to make the "bong" sound on boot-up and just happens to be a better speaker than the one in old desktops that served the same function of bios/troubleshooting beeps.

[SubStarLex]

Suggestion: if two devices have a really noticeable difference in volume, lower the volume of the louder one to match the quieter one; our brains recognize louder sources as clearer/better sounding, which can make a difference in the appraisal of sound quality, particularly in person.

[mrosenblatt]

I just purchased 10 of these for a rehearsal studio at a major cruise line for running QLab. For the first time, it was actually a realistic option to go with the baseline Mac without any upgrades. I didn't, but I totally could have. I don't trust that they won't decide to do more with these things later on.

I also personally have a Mac Studio that I use daily and it's been an incredible computer. Totally silent, powerful as hell, and the power consumption is super low. I'm driving two 4K Displays right now and it doesn't break a sweat. I still get 60-80fps if I decide to game a bit... even at 4k. My actual Windows desktop is definitely better for gaming, but Apple is really killing it.

[Neoxon]

Surprising part of the Apple actually lowered the price of one of their new devices compared to the previous one.

[frank__]

I love Mac mini :) but I wish ram upgrade didn’t cost £200 for an extra 8GB 😂

[Just_a_commenter]

I've never wanted one, but tech content continues to appease my brain. I shall watch anyway

[davidschaub]

The Mac Studio never came with the M* Pro SoC. The M2 Pro Mac mini is the first M* Pro class Mac desktop, which is why it stands out as being such an interesting product.

[isaacowens_]

was always telling myself i was gonna upgrade from my i9 16 inch once they announced the m2 pro 16 inch, that was until the mac mini m2 pro came. gonna be going with that now since i’m always doing my work at the desk with my macbook in clamshell mode anyway and save a solid ~$1.4k

[traek]

I am not happy with the serviceability of the Mac computers as a whole. They solder almost all of the components onto the motherboards now and all of the extra components are very fragile and easy to break/tear. Apple has basically refused people the ability to maintain their own devices outside of just blowing the dust out of them. Very shameful tactics from such a well known company.

[derickwiebe]

That low end one is the "I need to develop iOS apps for Apple's walled garden, but refuse to use it for anything else" version.

[WhoWatchesVideos]

The USD$600 price point is wild. Putting a cheap Windows system together with the same RAM, a DRAMless NVMe SSD of the same capacity and a retail Windows license, I can only put a 12400 in that thing before it goes over budget. It's just a shame that every little spec bump is highway robbery.

[eruilluvitar]

I'd try curling with a Mac Mini. Sounds like a fun time.

[fahimanayet]

the headphone port is in the back. That is the most annoying thing.

[rekaivns]

Definitely an interesting machine, makes me wanna give MacOS a try lol

[TurbulentTittiez]

Don’t forget student pricing makes the base model start at $499

[robnation]

I just tried a simple real-world test with my M2 Mini 512GB (non-pro): It runs/plays at least 7 duplicate YouTube videos simultaneously without any hesitation! (all 7 in 4K!) along with a dozen other windows open.

[CodySparksModes]

I actually chuckled at "Whats this, propaganda" as you just tossed the booklet away